


The Dog

by Bitterblue



Category: Graceling - Kristin Cashore, Orphan Black (TV), Seven Kingdoms Trilogy - Kristin Cashore
Genre: Gen, Orphan Black AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-07 13:53:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1901478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitterblue/pseuds/Bitterblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helena as Katsa, a crossover meditation in three parts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dog

1\. Randa keeps a killing machine in his castle.

She is nine the first time she kills a man, sent like a dog to dispose of a lordling who has displeased the King. She knows how to make it painful. They have not taught her any other way. The man laughs when he sees her, calls her  _little diplomat_  and praises the niece of the King he so recently betrayed. He mistakenly believes that this will be a light reprimand.

His guards are so surprised they do not attempt to interfere. She has blood on her hands. Helena vomits, then.

2\. Randa keeps a killing machine in his castle.

She is fourteen and she is stealth, a weapon in her own right to be used for intimidation as much as for the lethality of her hands. Randa had discovered, somehow, that she preferred to use weapons and poisons; now she is unarmed. It won't make a difference to the final outcome—he just wants to remind her that she is not  _like_  a dog. She  _is_  a dog, sent back and forth across the kingdom to threaten subordinates without needing to open her mouth. They all know what she is. It is written in hazel and brown mismatched eyes.

3\. Randa keeps a killing machine in his castle.

She is eighteen and has been killing for half her life when someone suggests she could stop. The idea is so absurd it takes her days to understand it; when she does it makes her heart ache. She could stop killing, stop being the dog sent to fetch and snarl, stop the growing pit of fear inside of her that says she is only a machine made to kill people.

The machine walks away from the court.

Helena relearns how to smile.


End file.
